


Awaken

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Gen, M/M, Merrick and the events of her book don't exist for this one, Post "the vampire Armand"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-01
Updated: 2008-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 01:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17254754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: A conversation between Lestat and Armand, written at some point soon after Lestat awakens from his coma.





	Awaken

It was strange how strongly I felt Lestat’s gaze, even though everything in his face suggested that he was looking past me. We were sitting together on opposite sides of a wooden table in the kitchen that Marius never used. Lying in the chapel at St. Elizabeth’s, Lestat had been as still as he was now, but to see him awake and yet so motionless had an entirely different effect.

“I wanted to stay here with you.” I said. I could hear the appassionata playing in one of the rooms above; it had been playing for quite some time perhaps, with a myriad of variations but no clear beginning or end. 

“She was playing the song when you left, and you can hear that she hasn’t stopped.” 

I thought I saw the beginnings of a smile, a hint of the old Lestat. 

“Marius tries to talk to her. She won’t listen,” his smile widened, and it seemed he was about to laugh, “I think he imagines that he’s running an asylum. “

“For you and Sybelle?” I asked. Lestat stood, his back turned to me. I wanted him to pace, to rant, or even to laugh in my face, but he did none of these things. So much of Lestat’s indomitable intensity had always been wrapped up in his motions, in the changing of his moods; it was still there now, but it seemed that he had directed it inward instead of at the world. 

“I didn’t come here to see you,” I said. “I only came to collect Benji and Sybelle.”

No response. The wood of the table was smooth and polished, but there was a crack running across one of the corners. I wondered why Marius had bought it. It didn’t look like something that he should own. 

“I would have stayed.” I said. 

“You came here to see me.” There was no doubt in Lestat’s voice. All I could do was nod. He returned to his seat, resting his elbows against the table in a way that seemed entirely natural to him. 

“You want know about what I saw, while I was lying in that damned church?”

I nodded. 

“Well, I’m not telling you.”

 

“But you want to tell me,” I said. I waited. Nothing. “I’m leaving with them tonight.”

He shrugged. I leaned across the table, letting my lips brush his cheek. He gave no verbal response, but his posture seemed to soften, almost imperceptivity. 

I stood. When I paused at the doorways to look back at him, he did not seem injured or defiant. Whatever revelations he had received clung to him, not nearly as striking to me as his apparent tiredness.


End file.
